


Punishment and Reconciliation in the Corps

by pallasite



Series: Behind the Gloves [154]
Category: Babylon 5, Babylon 5 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Backstory, Boarding School, Canon Compliant, Discipline, Emotional, Emotional Baggage, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Essays, Fix-It, Gen, How canon misled you, Internal Corps Politics, Justice, Politics, Psi Corps, School, Telepath culture, The Corps is Mother and Father, The Psi Corps tag is mine, Worldbuilding, parenting, telepaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:41:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22888606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pallasite/pseuds/pallasite
Summary: Bester learns what justice means in the Corps... and from a teacher who wasn't even born in the Corps.(This is a canon story, but canon's telling of it was out of order and missing important explanations.)The prologue ofBehind the Glovesishere- please read!
Series: Behind the Gloves [154]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/677654
Kudos: 5





	Punishment and Reconciliation in the Corps

**Author's Note:**

> New to _Behind the Gloves_? What is this series? Where are the acknowledgements, table of contents and universe timelines? See [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10184558/chapters/22620590).
> 
> If you like _Behind the Gloves_ and would like to send me an email, I can be reached at counterintuitive at protonmail dot com. Do you have questions? Would you like to tell me what you like about this project? Email me!
> 
> I also have an [ask blog](https://behind-the-gloves.tumblr.com/), a [writing blog](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/pallasite-writes), and a "P3 life" Tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/p3-life) with funny anecdotes. :)

Picking up where I [left off](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22872814)...

1\. Bey sentences Bester "statue time," never telling him how long it will go on for (it's two weeks, an unusually long punishment). Most misbehaving students are only sentenced to a day, why it's called "statue of the day". In his case, though, it's a lot more serious.

He has to spend all day standing as a "statue" in the quad, with only occasional five minute breaks to eat or use the washroom, from the morning till 8 PM, every night. He must remain silent unless spoken to, and if addressed, must only recite the lines Bey has given him to recite. At 8 PM, he is not allowed to return to his own room, but must go to a small white "cell" to sleep, alone. (The cell does have a secret one-way window, though, as Bester later realizes.) He is not allowed to study.

It is a punishment designed not just to exhaust and humiliate, but also to separate a student from his or her peers. He or she must be ALONE (or at least feel alone, since students remain under constant teacher supervision).

In Bester's case, this part isn't a big deal - he's a loner anyway. He has no friends. He cares about being humiliated, and about not being able to study, but he doesn't even remark about having to be alone in the evenings. I'm not sure he even realized this was part of the punishment. /sigh/

2\. That students in the Minor and Major Academies are punished with "statue time" is not new to Bester - he's seen many such "statues" in his life at school. In the cadres, Teacher Hua would sometimes bring the cadre over to a "statue," encouraging the children to give that older student a hard time. Teacher Hua does the same thing to Bester now, with his new young cadre, though when he leads them away, he also quietly 'casts encouragement to Bester.

It was finally Teacher Hua who broke it up [the tormenting], though Al suspected he wasn't supposed to. As they vanished from his view, he felt the lightest touch from the old man. _Hang in there, Alfred. You may suffer from too much pride, but some of us are proud of you, too._

It left him feeling a much taller statue.

It's a bit like Bey's "double message" after the hearing with the director - "we're punishing you, but we're really on your side." Bey is on his side, too, even though he doesn't realize that.

The book should have shown Bester's cadre going up to one such student, but like just about everything in Bester's life between ages six and thirteen, it leaves it out. So now we only hear about it later, when he's remembering it. (Maybe I'll write it.)

4\. Once he remembers doing this as a child in Teacher Hua's class, he no longer resents the children for taunting him. What he doesn't understand is why older students would taunt him - once he got to the Minor Academy, he'd matured enough to just leave these students alone. What would be the point in bothering them? None of his cadremates would do such a thing either - they were above such childish behavior.

Bester is also very unhappy that he is not allowed to study, after his statue time is up each night - typically, students are allowed to study when they return to their "cell". Bey is not only forcing him to miss his lessons for two weeks, he's not allowing him to read to keep up with the class. And spring exams are six weeks away when his punishment begins. So Bester begins to think this is all intentionally to make Bester fail his classes, and (gasp!) keep him out of the Psi Cop prep courses later.

5\. Bey, meanwhile, is watching Bester as he stands statue time, without Bester being able to see him (he's not allowed to turn around). He's made Bester stand near his office, so he can have line of sight on him all day, in case Bester's about to break another rule or to do something really stupid. And sure enough, when Bester decides to telepathically attack another student for humiliating him, Bey immediately catches him, and stops him.

We know Bester _had to be_ standing in sight of Bey's office, because Bey not only stops Bester from hurting another student in that moment, he's also watching everything Bester's thinking (as we see later on). Telepathically talking to him in the cell, he asks Bester about why, several days before, he was thinking about seeing things from every perspective (and then arranges for him to see a vid on a screen that Bester also didn't know was in the wall).

That means that the whole time Bester is standing statue time, Bey is one glance from seeing him at any moment, _all day_. He has probably rescheduled his own life to do so. He doesn't have a choice - any future misconduct on Bester's part will be blamed on him personally, so he's likely being watched closer than the typical "statue".

Unfortunately, these scenes are written from the point of view of a character who really doesn't understand what's going on and why, and then not enough is done to explain this. We really should have been introduced to what "statue time" was about much earlier, in a scene from when Bester was a child.

6\. Canon makes a few small errors in these scenes... Bester is shown knowing that it is Bey who scanned him in Paris, but then later shows him finding out from Bey himself that it was Bey who had done the scan. (The second is correct - he doesn't know anything about this at this point.) Also, as I mentioned earlier, the book also shows him angry that Bey might be telepathically contacting him in his cell, saying this is against the law and regulations. It's not, so this makes no sense. (Bester doesn't know a lot of things, but he _does_ know the regulations.)

There is a small one-way window in the cell, as Bester eventually figures out, which is how Bey is able to see him and from time to time, make telepathic contact with him. (And he's being watched by someone the whole time he's in there... they don't really leave a student in there unsupervised, because that would be dangerous.)

7\. But one piece here is correct: Bester does interpret this punishment as about torturing him _personally_ , saying that Bey, "despite his claims, knew nothing of justice but everything about torturing Alfred Bester."

8\. After four days of "statue time," Bester doesn't go to his cell, but to Bey's office. Bey is still there - he did have to spend all day watching Bester, after all, so he hasn't gone back to his quarters for the night yet. (Teachers live on campus. Some are married, and some are not.) Bester doesn't even seem to consider that Bey might not be in his office at that hour!

\-----

 _Deadly Relations_ , p. 85-89:

He knew where Bey's office was. He found it and pounded on the door. His fury made him a giant, but he was beginning to lose height when the door finally swung open.

Sandoval Bey looked at him mildly. "Mr. Bester, I believe you should be in your room now. The watch will be wondering where you are."

"Why are you doing this to me? Why? This is worse than anything the director would have done."

Bey's eyes crinkled, and he suddenly bellowed a laugh. "Mr. Bester," he said, "in some ways you are pitifully naive."

(In the scene before, we see that Bester's got it into his head that since he's being publicly humiliated, no one will ever respect him again - even in twenty years, even if he becomes a Psi Cop. He thinks this is all being done to ruin him. Despite being raised in the Corps from birth, he still doesn't understand how discipline and justice work in his own culture. And he doesn't know the director was trying to have him killed for treason.)

"Sir, how can I ever - I mean, if I don't have any respect, how can I..."

"Come in, Mr. Bester. I don't want anyone to see you standing in the hall."

(Yes, Bester isn't supposed to be there.)

Al stepped in, and Bey shut the door behind him. In an instant, everything seemed to change. He suddenly saw himself, wet, covered in birdshit, standing in the office of one of the most powerful men in Psi Corps.

"Now, Mr. Bester. You broke the trust of the Corps. You have been given a lenient punishment, considering. What is your complaint?"

"My complaint is that - that - Why does my punishment have to be so-so-"

"Public?"

(It has to be public, one because that's how punishment is done in that school - which he should know, but he's being selfish - and two, because the director has to see Bey "kicking his ass.")

Al just stood there trembling for a moment. "Sir, I thought you were my friend."

A peculiar expression passed over Bey's face then.

"Al," he said softly. "I am your friend. I'm trying to save your life."

This scene perhaps the only time Bey calls him "Al." In the Corps, teachers do NOT call students by their first names, once they're out of the cadres. The Corps is an extremely hierarchical and formal culture - yet Bey drops all formality for a moment and speaks to him in a _father-like_ way. We should have had a moment in the text showing Bester's reaction to this dramatic departure from the culture's formality.

Bey can't tell him what the director was actually planning, but he can speak to Bester about his self-destructive mindset.

I discussed that section already [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17239259), in the essay about Bey's backstory and his attitude on suicides, both literal and emotional. I won't copy it all over again - what matters here is the lesson about what justice means.

"Do you understand this? Do you understand any of it? ... Do you know what you really want, Mr. Bester?"

"I want to be a good Psi Cop."

The blow came so fast it seemed like Bey's [bare] hand merely materialized on his face. It stung, all the way to his soul.

"That's for lying," Bey snapped. His face was very dark. "You presume to know what makes a good Psi Cop? Do you? You know nothing. The Psi Cop who died because of you was a good Psi Cop. I trained him. He had friends, people that loved him. He is mourned. Will anyone mourn you, Mr. Bester?"

"I don't think so, sir," he said, face flushing hot. "I don't really..." He broke off.

"You were going to say you don't care, weren't you? But that isn't true, is it?"

"Sir, don't-" His throat was constricting. The last few days suddenly seemed piled upon him like so many rocks, but above those a whole mountain was crumbling.

"How was the trip with Cadre Prime, Al?"

"I thought - they only took me with them because-" What was happening to him?

"Because I told them to, as a matter of fact. But you hoped, didn't you? Hoped that you would belong?"

"I've never belonged, sir. I've only ever belonged to the Corps. I don't understand why you're so mad at me. I don't understand why the director said those things, called me a traitor, because I love the Corps. I don't understand ANY OF IT!" He was shouting now, and hot, salty tears etched streams down his face. It seemed as if the bones in his chest were melting and squirting up through his eyes.

Bey stared at him for a moment, then sighed. He laid [his bare] hand on Al's shoulder and squeezed.

Al didn't want to. It felt stupid and stiff and weak, but that simple Human gesture burst the dams behind his eyes, and though he still did not understand why, he wept uncontrollably, gritting his teeth. He couldn't remember another person touching him with kindness, with care, in so very, very long. It hurt terribly. He couldn't trust it, didn't Bey see that? It was stupid to trust, stupider to need. Bey was just another kind of Grin, subtler. His face was his mask.

But his tears didn't know that, and he wept for what seemed a long time. The older man made no move, just kept his hand on his shoulder, neither drawing him nearer nor pushing him away.

And now the missing scene ( _Deadly Relations_ , p. 256):

"My father slapped me once," Bey said solemnly. "Actually, he slapped me twice - once with the back of his hand, and then, quickly, with his palm. Later, I understood. The first blow was a rejection - he was rejecting the thing I had done, I don't even remember what it was now. The second blow - with the palm - was to take me back. 'I reject you - but I take you back.' That was his message. It was a good lesson. Sometimes there had to be punishment, but there must always be reconciliation in a family. There must always be a gathering back in, a second slap with the palm. Family."

[They stood in silence for a few moments, and at last Bey removed his hand from Al's shoulder.]

"Don't worry," Bey told him, [donning his glove once more]. "Don't worry. It will be all right. Now go back to your room. I'll make it seem as if I sent for you, to reprimand you. Go."

\-----

That was the point of this entire scene - to show how Bester learned this this central personal and cultural lesson of life in the Corps. It's a theme that comes back over and over in canon, both in Bester's life personally as well as in the story of the Corps as a whole. It's a central cultural piece necessary to understand the tragedy of the Telepath War.

The pieces had to be rearranged to show you what this scene was _supposed to be_ , so you can understand other elements later on.

(As I speculated in another essay, since Bey lost his father at age six, and doesn't even remember what it is he did to cause his father to slap him, he's likely partially filling in the memory of that moment with what he's learned in his time in the Corps. Yes, his father slapped him, but when he says "later, I understood," I read this to mean he filled in the meaning of this moment with his later life influences. I doubt his (normal) father slapped him because of Psi Corps values.)

In this scene, Bester learns that telepath justice means not just punishment, but forgiveness - no matter what, _telepaths are a family._

This is also a scene where Bey would remove his glove, so I added that. He is acting as a parent to Bester. He drops formality in his speech. It's a private, not public, moment, and of course, highly emotional. This contrast (gloves on/gloves off) should also have been highlighted in the book. At this point, the only time the author has mentioned gloves coming off was in the scene with the Grins - and so this, a very different kind of discipline scene, should stand in contrast to that, especially as Bester has started to think of Bey as "like a Grin" because he has so much trouble trusting anyone, at all, and has never known any real parental figure.


End file.
